News from Massachusetts

HOA CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT: CAI finally admits to being a business 501(c)6 trade organization

By George K. Staropoli

January 15, 2017

CAI finally admits to being a business trade tax-exempt organization.

Community Associations Institute (CAI) is a national nonprofit 501(c)(6) organization founded in 1973 to foster competent, responsive community associations through research, training and education. […] We work to identify and meet the evolving needs of the professionals and volunteers who serve associations, by being a trusted forum for the collaborative exchange of knowledge and information, and by helping our members learn, achieve and excel.[1]

In my 17 years as a HOA reform activist this is a landmark first! This is a personal achievement. There was very little support from other reform advocates and homeowners regarding misrepresentation by CAI.[2] As a result of my repeated criticisms and exposes, CAI had to apparently fess up.

Over its 44 years in existence CAI has mislead its viewers, members, the public and legislators as to its legal tax-exempt status. It news releases, websites, Common Ground magazine, communications with state and federal elected officials, and court filings that refer to representing homeowners and HOAs.[3] CAI is not allowed to have HOAs as members![4] Example, CAI’s current web page reads,

CAI provides information, education and resources to the homeowner volunteers who govern communities and the professionals who support them. CAI members include association board members and other homeowner leaders, community managers, association management firms and other professionals who provide products and services to associations.

McClatchyDC: HOAs from hell: more horror stories, more fraud – and prospect of legislative action

By Judy L. Thomas

December 23, 2016

In Georgia, a decorated Army veteran who lost a leg in Afghanistan is now ensnared in a battle on the home front — with his homeowners association.

The HOA filed a lien on his house related to the placement of his trash cans.

From Maryland to California, prosecutors have charged HOA officers and property management officials in fraud and embezzlement cases with losses that total in the millions.

And in Missouri, lawmakers are working on a proposal to make homes associations more accountable, with one saying homeowners in his district have become so incensed with their HOAs that “we are one step away from pitchforks and torches.”

Lawmakers in some states are saying enough is enough. It’s time, they insist, to take on a more aggressive role in regulating the $85 billion industry.

“It’s the number one constituent issue in my district,” said Missouri state Rep. Bryan Spencer, a Republican from Wentzville, near St. Louis. “This is basic property owner rights. It’s a fundamental right that we should have as Americans.” Read more:

SALEM, Mass. — Four condominium associations in New Hampshire and Massachusetts will be receiving restitution from Andrew Raynor, Matthew Dykeman, and their Haverhill-based management company, Shawmut Properties, LLC.

In Salem Superior Court Wednesday, Raynor and Dykeman pleaded no contest to charges of stealing over $100,000 from several condo associations over a two-year period. With their pleas, each received two years probation.

The pair — and the corporation itself — will also pay $20,000 each to be distributed between the condo developments, which were billed for repairs and services never performed from January 2012 through February 2014.

The bilked clients included Pine Hill and Oliver’s Pond in Lawrence and Marblehead, as well as River’s Glen and Springfield Estates in Bedford, N.H., and Rochester, N.H. Read more:

The Washington Post: Condominiums in Crisis: Financial troubles put many communities at risk

By Bill Turque

September 18, 2016

For five summers, a tarp has covered the swimming pool at Grand Bel II, a condominium community in Silver Spring that has no money for lifeguards, chemicals or insurance. The Vistas at Washingtonian Woods in Gaithersburg faces $600,000 in repairs but has just $400,000 in cash reserves.

At Saxony Square in Alexandria, an unemployed man nine months behind on his mortgage negotiates with lenders to keep his two-bedroom condo. His neighbors struggle to pay their monthly fees; since 2010, Saxony’s board of directors has filed more than 80 court actions to try to collect such assessments.

Even as posh condos rise in trendy neighborhoods around the nation’s capital, manyolder complexes are mired in a recession that never ended. A cycle of aging infrastructure, limited resources and foreclosure is putting these communities in a deep financial hole, threatening what traditionally has been an affordable path to homeownership for the working class. Read more:

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